Associated Press: Two in Mob family convicted, but not for killing cop in 1997

May 9, 2012

By Tom Hays

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

NEW YORK — A reputed Mafia boss and a co-defendant were convicted Wednesday on racketeering charges, but they were acquitted of the most-shocking crime in their federal case: the unsolved gangland slaying of an off-duty New York Police Department officer in 1997.

In a blow to prosecutors, a jury delivered the mixed verdict for the defendants Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli, the reputed former boss of the Colombo crime family, and reputed mob soldier Dino “Little Dino” Saracino on its fifth day of deliberations in federal court in Brooklyn.

Gioeli, 59, had been charged in a total of six killings, including that of Officer Ralph Dols, dating to the 1990s. Jurors found that he and Saracino were involved in murder plots but also concluded that prosecutors failed to prove they actually killed Dols or the others.

The two defendants smiled broadly and slapped their attorneys’ backs after the jury left the courtroom. They face up to 20 years in prison at sentencing Sept. 14. The murder counts had carried a possible life term.

Investigators believe Dols ran afoul of the mob by marrying the ex-wife of Joel Cacace, another Colombo boss. On the witness stand, Calabro, at the time a Colombo associate, described being recruited by Gioeli for a “piece of work” wanted by Joel Cacace.

Gioeli misled Calabro by telling him the target was a worker at a Queens social club who was in trouble with the family, Calabro said. The witness described how he and Saracino donned baseball caps and gloves before confronting Dols as he got out of his car.

“What’s up?” the officer asked before both men opened fire and left him fatally wounded on the street, Calabro said. The killers tossed their guns in the sewer as they fled, he said.

Calabro said he only learned the victim was a police officer by reading newspaper headlines the next day.